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Talk about stacking the deck... all the 'moderate' candidates who won in the recent election were first evaluated by the all-powerful Guardian Council of ayatollahs. These fanatical Shiite clerics hold the real power in Iran. Just look at the figures - only 20% of the candidates were allowed to run for the Assembly of Experts, an upper House as it were. As for the Majlis, Iran's parliament, only 7,000 of 12,000 candidates got the ayatollahs' stamp of approval. Would you believe it? Even Hassan Khomeini, grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the Revolution in 1979, was turned down because he was deemed not loyal enough! In other words, the Iranian politicians who were elected were all hand picked and judged to be loyal to the regime. So all the hoopla about a great victory by President Hassan Rouhani should be taken with more than a few grains of salt. Keep in mind that the Guardian Council of ayatollahs, which is in cahoots with the Revolutionary Guards, will still be calling the shots in Tehran when it comes to terror abroad and nuclear policy at home.

A ceasefire to halt the carnage in a bloody civil war should be a welcome event. But this is not likely in Syria. Two of the most vicious combatants, Daesh and Jabhat al Nusra (an affiliate of al Qaeda) are not even party to it, and Russia has forewarned that it will react with force to any violations by the rebels who seek to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. And after President Putin sent in his airborne 'cavalry' to save Assad by bombing just about anything that moved, the Syrian tyrant is firmly in place in his presidential palace in Damascus.

Why do Hamas tunnels keep caving in? Is it only due to heavy rain and work accidents, or has Israel solved the problem of those Hamas tunnels being excavated under the border from inside Gaza? More of those tunnels have mysteriously caved-in recently - five in the past three weeks. According to Hamas, twelve of its members have been killed under the rubble. (Yes, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has admitted publicly that his men are tunneling night and day with the aim of launching terror attacks against civilians and IDF soldiers just over the border).

From a mountaintop in nearby Cyprus, American and British cyber spies have been hacking into Israel's most closely guarded secrets for years. In a startling expose, the Intercept website has revealed a joint American-British operation 'to steal a bird's-eye-view' of Israeli drone operations. Not only that, they are also monitoring any Israeli preparations for a military strike against Iran's nuclear sites. This is how Intercept described what one Israeli has deemed as the gravest penetration of Israel's 'holiest of holies':

"American and British Intelligence secretly tapped into live video feeds from Israeli drones and fighter jets monitoring military operations in Gaza, watching for a potential strike against Iran, and keeping tabs on the drone technology Israel exports around the world."

In Davos, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu charted a new course. In a memorable interview with Fareed Zekaria, Netanyahu stressed that new clandestine ties with the Sunni Arab countries will supersede a solution to the Palestinian issue:

'There is a great shift taking place - we used to think that if we solved the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it would solve the larger Israeli-Arab conflict. The more I look at it, the more I think it may be the other way round. That by nurturing these relationships that are taking place now with the Arab world, that could actually help us resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we're actually working towards that end'.

The symbolism was stark. Just days before Washington was due to lift billions of dollars of sanctions on Tehran, the Iranians humiliated ten American sailors who were forced to their knees with their hands behind their heads in submission. The photos from the Persian Gulf were flashed around the world showing who is boss in the Persian Gulf. Just hours later, U.S. President Barack Obama ignored the ignominious incident in his last speech to the nation. On the contrary, he lauds the nuclear deal with Iran. And his Secretary of State, John Kerry, even thanks his Iranian counter-part, Javad Zarif, for the subsequent release of the wayward sailors.

IsraCast assesses what might soon emerge in light of Iran's ascendancy that has been bolstered by its nuclear deal with the U.S. and what is perceived as Obama's deference to Tehran in Riyadh. At home, the terror attack that killed two Israelis in the center of Tel Aviv leaves some key unanswered questions.

The U.S. spies on Israel - so what else is new? If U.S. President Obama spied on German Chancellor Merkel and French President Hollande, Prime Minister Netanyahu should be proud to be included in such an august group. Besides, didn't Israel and the U.S. team up to spy on Iran's nuclear program and unleash the Stuxnet virus that derailed it in 2011? With advanced cybernetics and hi-tech, it's only natural that nations, having the capability, will employ it to protect and advance their national interests.

Jerusalem and Ankara are reportedly on their way to signing a 'memorandum of understanding’ at secret talks held in Switzerland. If so, it could not have come at a better time. In the midst of the EU's branding of Israeli products from West Bank settlements and the BDS campaign being mounted against the Jewish state, Israel will have scored a major strategic coup with Turkey. However, government sources in Jerusalem caution that 'it's not over until it's over’ and Erdogan is known to be very unpredictable. Just ask Russia's President Putin. But if two of the strongest states in the region are about to bury the hatchet, it is unlikely they will restore their former alliance that was the most powerful in the Middle East.

When Barack Obama and Israel's President, Reuven Rivlin, lit Chanukah candles in the Oval Office, they also cast some light on the truth about the U.S. -Israeli relationship. In the past, much was made about the 'bad blood' between Obama and Netanyahu - Barack Hussein Obama was a closet anti-Semite, although most of his closest friends and advisers were Jewish. On the other hand, a close aide to Obama even accused Bibi of coming close to using the N-word! The Obama-Rivlin meeting has gutted these assumptions. At the same time, it has revealed some underling truths about the Obama-Netanyahu feud over the last nearly seven years. Obama and Bibi simply had different perceptions of what policies they wanted to follow after identifying what their voters would support. Naturally, they were democratically elected.

While over 190 world leaders gathered for the global warning conference in Paris, the planet was boiling over in more ways than one. The gathering in Paris, the city whose lights were dimmed by the Daesh atrocity, has been followed by San Bernardino. No, there is still no proof that Syed Farook acted on Daesh orders, but after the Paris attacks Daesh warned that 'Washington' would be next on its hit list. Bear this in mind: the late Dov Yinon, an eminent Israeli expert on Arab affairs, said that whenever some Muslims are exhilarated by a successful terror attack, they dream about also carrying out such acts. This could very well be what happened with Syed Farook, and the FBI is now checking back on his possible 'radical' connections. In the meantime, Daesh has praised the San Bernardino attack, some calling the killers 'Lions who have made us proud!'

The furious confrontation now raging between Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recepp Erdogan has raised this nightmare in Jerusalem. A senior Israeli Air Force officer has said he does not know what caused the Turkish jet to shoot down the Russian aircraft along Turkish-Syrian border, but indicated that chances are slim this could happen between Israeli and Russian jets. Israel and Russia have been operating an online communication network to prevent such an incident. At the end of a major Israeli Air Force exercise that has been conducted over northern Israel, the IAF officer said:

"We refrain from flying close to one another in order to prevent the pilots from having any question marks about the other's intentions. The intention is not to shoot down any Russian aircraft. Russia is not the enemy. We try to prevent any friction with the Russian aircraft, and their pilots refrain from any friction with us."

This is the propaganda being disseminated in the media, sponsored by Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and sometimes also by the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank. In other words, the ISIS leaders’ idea of conquering Rome is actually shared by all the Islamic Jihad organizations. Hamas actually said the same things long before ISIS. In this sense, there is no difference between the global jihad perpetrating mass murder in Paris and the global jihad trying to kill Jews in Israel.

The French leader has ordered his sole aircraft carrier to head urgently for Syria to reinforce the French jets that carried out the first coalition air strike against the Daesh oil facilities. Income from the oil funds 50% of its operations in Syria, Iraq, Sinai, and Europe. But the response of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was to abort Canada's combat role against Daesh in the Middle East. At a time when the Free World nations should rally to the aid of France, Trudeau has declared: 'Count Canada out!'

ISIL's writing was on the wall, or should have been - but no one was really ready to see it! After the targeted killing of ‘Jihadi John’, Britain had better be on very high alert. ISIL has escalated its murderous campaign beyond the borders of Syria and Iraq. First Russia, and then the West, stepped up their operations in Syria, and ISIL has hit back hard.

First came the blowing up of the Russian airliner over Sinai, then the horrific suicide bombings in the Hezbollah quarter of Beirut, and now the killing spree in Paris. After blowing the Russian airplane to smithereens, ISIL then issued a video threat to Israel:

'Don't think that because we are fighting in Syria and elsewhere that we have forgotten about you... we are coming to get you in Eilat!'

The signals from Washington are unmistakable. With Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu about to go to the White House, President Barack Obama has decided to bury the hatchet. Despite Netanyahu's intrusive campaign to torpedo the Iranian nuclear deal, Obama now has the Iranian nuclear deal under his belt. Moreover, with the Middle East coming apart at the seams and Russia's military expansion into Syria, Israel is emerging as America's most dependable ally in the region. And with the Presidential election looming, Obama must also consider the Jewish vote after his bashing of the Jewish state over the Palestinian issue. After Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected negotiating with Netanyahu in favor of seeking an imposed solution at the UN, Obama has called it a day. Despite the dire warnings that Netanyahu has caused irreparable harm to the 'special relationship' between Israel and the U.S., this is apparently not the case. (Granted, Bibi's address to Congress was a bit too much).

The nuclear accord negotiated by the world powers, the 5P+1, may be a done deal, but for Israel, this was only act one. The second act was now coming up. Netanyahu left no doubt that if the international community did not keep 'Iran's feet to the fire' by honoring the terms, then Israel would go it alone and attack Iran's nuclear weapons sites:

"I'll say it again. The days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies - those days are over.”

"Israel will not allow Iran to break-in or sneak-in, or walk into the nuclear weapons club."

"No one should question Israel's determination to defend itself against those who seek our destruction."

Whatever you think of Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, you have to admit he has one of the toughest jobs in the world. Just look at what he has on his plate every morning he wakes up …

The U.S.

America, Israel's best friend, has, under President Barack Obama's leadership, has concocted a wacky deal with Iran, Israel's worst enemy. It will enable the Ayatollahs to produce nuclear weapons in 10 to 15 years or whenever. First Obama pressured Democratic Senators to swallow it hook, line and sinker - they do not even know what's in the 'secret clauses'. So now Bibi, who apparently does, must 'grin and bear it'. His only reasonable course of action is to restore his strained relations with the U.S. President and hopefully bolster Israel's security in the wake of Iran's nuclear ascendancy. Barring unforeseen circumstances, Barack will also agree to bury the hatchet, particularly with the American presidential election looming on the horizon.

The IsraCast guide to information on the Yom Kippur War of 1973: Access to live recordings from the war, exclusive post-war recording of Arik Sharon discussing his part, historical facts you may not have known about the war and its many complexities, insightful analysis of the war and region, and explanation of the Yom Kippur - the holiest day in the Jewish Year.